Schee - Cabbage Soup

Schee - Cabbage Soup

1 lbs – 7-blade steak

Cabbage – 1/2 head (shredded)*

Tomatoes – 3 medium

Onion (sweet) – 1 & ½ medium size

Carrot – 1

Salt to taste (~3 tsp)

Bay leaves 4

Peppercorns (black) – 2 tsp

Dill weed – 2 tsp

1 whole root of parsley (optional, but it adds a very distinctive aroma to soup)

Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp

Ketchup – 1 cup

Garlic – 6 big cloves or 1 tbsp canned

Cilantro – 1 bunch

Boil meat in ~ 8-10 cups of water with 1 whole carrot , ½ onion, bay leaves, peppercorns, and dill weed for an hour after it starts boiling. Discard onion, peppercorn, bay leaves, dill weed, parsley root, and carrot*, take the meat out. Meanwhile, sauté  finely chopped onion**and 1 cup of ketchup until onions are browned and tender. Once onion is done, add it to broth and add chopped tomatoes, shredded cabbage, 1 cup of ketchup, and boil it all for 15 min. Add garlic and boil for 2 min, add 2/3 of the bunch of chopped cilantro, turn off the soup, and let it stay for 10 min covered. Discard meat bones and cut boiled meat in 1″ pieces, divide meat into 4 equal parts and put it in the bowl, pour the soup and serve it with freshly chopped cilantro and sour cream.

Tips:

* To  easily discard peppercorns, bay leaves, dill weed, wrap them in cheese cloth before you add them to soup, then, discard the bag after broth is made.

** To brown onion, put it into the frying pan without any oil, and fry it on high constantly stirring. Once it’s browned, add oil, reduce to low  and sauté until onion is tender.

Note: original recipe requires 2  potatoes (cut into cubes) boiled with cabbage. I excluded potatoes to cut on calories. Vegetarians can just boil cabbage and all other ingredients, and 5 min before soup is done add 2 tbsp of butter.